New avatar: De Niro in talks for ‘The War With Grandpa’

Film tells story of youngster wanting to drive grandfather out of the house

Actor Robert De Niro is in negotiations to star in the Dimension Films project The War With Grandpa, reported Variety.

Tim Hill will direct the film that revolves around a young man who loves his grandfather, but also loves his bedroom. When his grandpa’s wife dies, he moves in. The young man engages in a series of pranks meant to drive him out, but the old man is pretty resourceful in returning the favour.

Phillip Glasser, Marvin Peart and Rose Morris Peart are producing with Jane Rosenthal and Barry Welsh serving as executive producers. Lisa Addario and Joey Syracuse wrote the first draft and Matt Ember and Tom Astle are currently doing a polish on the script.



If a deal closes, De Niro would shoot this prior to his mob movie The Irishman. The project reteams him with his Goodfellas collaborators Joe Pesci and Martin Scorsese and marks his first film with Al Pacino. De Niro will play Frank Sheeran, a high-ranking Teamsters official with ties to the Bufalino crime family. Shortly before his death in 2003, Sheeran confessed that he killed fellow Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa, whose body has never been found. He also claimed that it was Hoffa who wanted John F Kennedy killed.

The Taxi Driver star was most recently seen in Hands of Stone, which premiered at Cannes, and also has the Taylor Hackford dramedy The Comedian debuting soon. Hill’s past credits include the Illumination film Hop and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2016.

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